The plan and the problem
by magicheese
Summary: Well, this is my first fanfic, so still new to the area :) I'm not to sure where I'm going with this. Morgana has a plan to take the throne of Camelot, but her plan includes killing Merlin, but her poison isn't quite right- leaving poor Merlin and the Camelot gang with a problem...
1. Chapter 1

Morgana slowly yet silently swept through Gaius's chambers. Breaking into the castle had been easy, and hopefully the next stage in her plan to take the throne of Camelot would go just as well.

The boy, Merlin had messed with her schemes too often, but she had put this into consideration for her present plan of action and decided she needed to get Merlin first, before Arthur could be hers, and promptly after that, the throne.

Morgana swept silent as an eagle into the sleeping Merlin's bedroom. As she neared the sleeping boy, she withdrew a small vial from the pocket of her dress. The liquid inside was as black as the nights sky. She reached Merlin's bedside and slowly, lent over him and trickled the substance into the cup of water by his bed, as the liquid touched his water, it fizzed slightly inside the cup, before settling down. Morgana stood up straight and watched the black liquid in Merlin's cup slowly change back to the colour of water again. She turned around and picked up Merlin's scarf, which was lying on a pile of his clothes on the floor, and tucked it into her dress and put a black feather in its place. Morgana smiled and took one last glance at the innocent look on the sleeping boys face before retreating back through his room and back to wait for her plan to take its course of action.

* * *

Merlin woke to the sound of Gaius clattering around in the room next door. He stretched his arms and yawned, loudly. 'Ah! Finally awake, are we?' Gaius called from his chambers

'Yes-good morning Gaius!' Merlin sighed, rolling his eyes. He reached for his cup of water and chugged it down before slowly getting up, so he could get to his duties, and wake up that spoiled Prince Pratt.

Merlin walked across Arthur's darkened room, where the prince was still sleeping in bed. Merlin had a bit of a headache, and the darkness of the room was relaxing and took some of the pain away. But, he needed to wake Arthur in the usual way, and he drew the curtains, letting the bright day light burst through the grand windows.

The light hit Merlin's eyes suddenly, as a stab of sharp pain, inflamed his head, he stumbled backwards, bringing his hands up to shield his eyes, but the pain in his head was like lightning, and Merlin promptly passed out.


	2. Chapter 2

_Ok, so, I think I've already said how I'm new here and rubbish with computers! But I've made a big mistake when copy n pasting from word! The most terrible mistake in the universe! I missed out a whole chunk of writing and those of you that thought chapter two made little scene- especially when Arthur says ' since the incident that morning'- well here is the incident that morning! I'm so so sorry, and I will be incredibly careful never to make such a stupid mistake again! After some practice I'll be perfect hopefully ;) Hmm maybe there's a way to swap the chapters round a bit? _

_Again soooo sorry- won't happen again! Thank you soo much to those who have reviewed and Favorited and followed and read and anything at all, I'm sent over the moon with 1 review! So surprised people responded so quickly! :) _

_Sorry one more thing- I've seen people do it so the don't get sued by random people or something, but: I do not own Merlin...If I did It would never end ;)_

* * *

Arthur was sitting on his horse with Gwaine laughing next to him; they were in a strange field that Arthur did not recognise. 'Heeyy, Princess Arty!' Gwaine called, much too loudly, as he was only right next to Arthur,' Look what Merlin made me!' Gwaine pulled out a small chicken from his pocket, and showed it to Arthur. The chicken was about the size of a mouse, and sat easily in Gwaine's palm. 'Ahh- very nice indeed' Arthur replied, 'Merlin must get me one of those too.' Arthur looked up from the chicken to Gwaine again, who was slowly disappearing. He brought a hand up to shade his eyes, as everything around him was becoming very bright, when he realised he was lying in his bed in Camelot and Merlin had just opened the curtains to wake him- successfully-as usual. Arthur heard a loud clattering noise and his dream was completely forgotten.

* * *

He squinted into the daylight as it flooded into the room and as his eyes adjusted, he looked out the window thinking something was wrong; where was Merlin? As he sat himself up in bed, he looked around, wondering what could have made that loud clattering noise and how the curtains had been drawn as there was nobody in sight. The prince sighed as he made the movement to get himself out of bed, but he froze. He could see his wooden desk and everything that had been on top of it spilled all over the floor. He rubbed all the gunk out of his eyes and looked closer-puzzled: His idiotic manservant was lying, sprawled, messily across the fallen over table- obviously passed out.

'Merlin? Who is meant to be waking who up-I wonder? Have you tripped over and knocked yourself out, you clumsy fool?' Arthur sighed and got slowly out of bed, and walked over towards Merlin.

Arthur, who was, by now, fully awake, pulled the unconscious Merlin of the table (he would deal with that idiot later) and proceeded to lift the table back to its rightful place. After the table was standing up again- like all tables should, he turned around and surveyed the mess that was scattered over the floor. Sighing, he decided this was a job for his un-reliable manservant, and turned and started to walk towards where he had temporarily dumped Merlin's unconscious body.

Arthur glanced at Merlin and turned to grab his jug of water from beside his bed. He then, slowly emptied the contents all over Merlin's head. Spluttering, the manservant regained conciseness and blinked the water out of his eyes. He looked around from his place on the floor, dazed and confused, before focusing his gaze on Arthur, a puzzled look on his face.

'You alright then Merlin?' Arthur asked in a sarcastic tone.

'W-what just happ-pend?' Merlin asked Arthur who noticed how weak his voice was and how he genuinely did not know what happened. 'Well you tell me Merlin, I was sleeping peacefully, when you must have drawn the curtains as usual, then you had collapsed, unconscious, knocking over my table as well...' Merlin looked up into Arthur's face for a few seconds, when suddenly he realised what had happened.

'Um… I drew the curtains- then the light, it really hurt, Arthur I don't know what it was-' Merlin stuttered. 'Don't worry Merlin, you must have been tired, anyway, now your awake, you can get up and pick up that mess you've just created all over my bedroom' Arthur stood up and pulled Merlin to his feet, who swayed momentarily before steadying himself. 'You sure your aright?'

'Yeah, I'll be fine' Merlin assured Arthur, who noticed there was something very different about his servant, and he just couldn't pick out what.


	3. Chapter 3

**The night before**

Morgana trotted trough the dark forest on her powerful, midnight black horse. She had poisoned Merlin and he would no doubt be dead by the end of the day. The forest was shadowy and silhouettes of trees loomed on the distance. The ivy covered trees were coated in thick, dark moss, Morganas brow furrowed; something was wrong about this as she slowed the trot of her horse and glared down at some moss under a tree. It was very dark, as the colours wafted together, knotting the black trees as one and making it impossible to see clearly. But darkness did not affect Morgana, as she was part of it. She stared down into the thick patch of blackened moss and saw the clear white flower protruding from it, almost glowing in comparison.

Morgana almost kicked her self the moment she realised what the flower was. She never did anything wrong! Her plans were always carefully laid out; she couldn't remember the last time she had made a stupid error like this one. The flower was deadly, and the most important ingredient to her poison she had concocted for Merlin. She growled to herself, now realising what Merlin had drunk would not kill him quickly, oh well; she would just have to wait longer, growling to herself, she signalled to her horse to carry on, loathing herself: Morgana was sick of waiting.

* * *

Merlin had one of the most painful headaches he had ever had. The white hot pain behind his eyes was practically unbearable, but he didn't want to mention it to Arthur because he wouldn't be able to help at all, he would just have to endure until he had the chance to get back to Gaius- Merlin knew he would give him a remedy.

Arthur finished his mouthful of ham and placed his fork back down on the large wooden table. He looked up at his manservant, who was standing a few steps away from the table, holding a metal jug in both hands, looking lost in thought. 'You're unusually quiet today Merlin…?' Arthur asked his servant, who jerked his head at the sudden break in the silence and winced. 'I don't know…' Merlin mumbled 'I just feel weird'. This was truthful; his entire body felt ever so slightly odd in an unexplainable way.

Arthur's brow furrowed, something about Merlin was completely different, he had noticed there was some sort of change in Merlin in the morning, and now he was really trying to figure out what.

Arthur stared at Merlin inquisitively, and started to methodically scan his servant's lanky figure. He was wearing the same little boots, (which Arthur was secretly very fond of), the same dirty brown breeches, same smudgy jacket, bony pale face and scruffy black hair. Today Merlin was wearing a blue top which hung loosely off him tied with a thin brown belt…and … Merlin's scarf. Yes- those odd little ratty things he was always wearing and Arthur wasn't sure why. Merlin always wore one and Arthur had just become so used to them that when it was taken away, the tiny difference was odd, and hard to spot. Arthur had never gotten around to asking Merlin about that strange little feature of his, but had come up with many theories. Maybe he used them for practicality, not a scarf (they wouldn't keep anyone warm) but just in case it would come in handy. It could be some kind of hand-me-down he obtained at one point while living in Ealdor and he wants to keep them safe, the things may have sentimental value of some kind, or they were just neckerchiefs and he wore them for no reason what so ever. All these little theories flicked through the inquisitive man's head while he was on the cusp of deciding whether to ask Merlin about them or not.

'Merlin…why aren't you wearing a scarfy thing today? You always wear one and I was just… wondering.' Merlin's face seemed to fall at the mention of this. He unconsciously brought his hand up towards his neck to feel the empty space and let his arm quickly drop. The younger man seemed to think for a moment. 'I couldn't find it' In fact, the real truth was that Merlin had left his red one in a pile on top of some of his other clothes in his room, but when he had come to get dressed in the morning in was not where he had left it. All he had found was a black feather in its place and Merlin could not begin to guess why. He would have just worn his blue one, but it was dirty.

Arthur rested his chin on his hand with his elbow on the oak table, next to his half devoured meal and a wondering look crossed his face. 'Merlin, I never asked… why do you always wear those ratty little things anyway?' Merlin raised his eyebrows at the question; he wasn't sure what to say to Arthur. Back when Merlin was just a young farm-boy, living in Ealdor and he was at the age where he still couldn't control his magic properly, his mother had made him these scarf's and told him they had been dipped in a magical lake, giving them powers that could help magic stay under control. As Merlin was so young- he had believed her and it had worked, but still now, whenever he wore them, his magic felt under control- even though he knew now that his mother had just made the story up. But obviously Merlin could not tell Arthur all this, so he just said, after this long and thoughtful hesitation- 'My mother gave them to me in Ealdor.' Arthur considered Merlin's rueful expression with hidden concern. It didn't seem right to be 'pratty' at that moment as Arthur could tell something was defiantly troubling his servant since the incident that morning. 'Merlin' Arthur paused, 'what's wrong?'

'hmm- headache…' Merlin mumbled, wishing he could just get back to Guies and _rest_. The servant was in deep pain and he was finding it difficult for his eyes to focus on anything as his head silently throbbed, but he was also, in the back of his mind, wondering why Arthur was paying so much attention all of a sudden.


End file.
